Former Wife of Walker Tells of Life of Agony With Soviet Spy

The ex-wife of admitted spy John A. Walker Jr. testified Monday that she told Jerry A. Whitworth as early as 1973 that she knew her husband “was recruiting him to spy” and warned him that John Walker “couldn’t be trusted.”

In an emotional 45 minutes of testimony about her life as the wife of a spy for the Soviet Union, Barbara Joy Crowley Walker said her husband gave her “two black eyes” when she accused him of spying, told of accompanying him on “drops” of classified information to prove “how much I cared” and described years of agonizing over whether to turn her husband in.

Espionage Trial Testimony

Testifying at Whitworth’s espionage trial, Barbara Walker, 48, a store clerk in West Dennis, Mass., wept softly and at one point ran out of the courtroom, saying, “I’m sorry, I’m getting sick to my stomach.”

She described first confronting her husband with evidence about his espionage activity in 1968, the year he started spying, after going through his desk.

She said that Walker “struck me in the face two or three times” and gave her “two black eyes.”

“Did you tell the authorities?” defense lawyer Tony Tamburello asked on cross-examination.

“I thought about it,” she said, choking back sobs. “I tried to call the FBI, but I couldn’t.”

Walker said she tried to call the FBI several other times in later years. One time, she said, she got through but hung up when she was informed that the FBI could not guarantee “protection” for a person who exposed a spy.

Concern for Children

“I was more concerned that if anything happened to me there wouldn’t be anyone for the kids,” she said. The Walkers had four children during their 19 years of marriage and were divorced in 1976. Barbara Walker was given immunity from prosecution for her testimony Monday.

She eventually tipped off the FBI to Walker’s activities in November, 1984, but has said she would not have done it if she had known that her son also was a spy.

Michael Walker, 23, pleaded guilty to espionage along with his father in federal court in Baltimore last Oct. 28. The elder Walker, who faces a lifetime prison term, agreed to the plea bargain in an effort to ensure a lighter sentence for his son. Michael Walker was sentenced to 25 years.

John Walker’s brother, Arthur, also was a member of the spy ring and has been convicted of espionage and sentenced to life plus 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Whitworth, 46, a retired Navy communications specialist, is charged with conspiring with Walker to spy for the Soviets from 1974 until Walker’s arrest last May. Whitworth allegedly received $332,000 for his role in what authorities have called the most damaging espionage ring uncovered in the United States in three decades.

Ex-Wife Characterized

In testifying against Whitworth, his former Navy buddy, over the last two weeks, Walker repeatedly characterized his ex-wife as an alcoholic “snitch” and denied hitting her. In her testimony Monday, Barbara Walker said she did not start drinking heavily until after she discovered that her husband was a spy.

Barbara Walker’s testimony differed from her former husband’s on several other points. Most notably, John Walker testified that he directly broached the subject of spying with Whitworth in 1974 after several years of testing whether his friend had enough “larceny in his heart.” Barbara Walker said she and Whitworth discussed John Walker’s recruitment of Whitworth in 1973.

Under questioning by Assistant U.S. Atty. Leida B. Schoggen, Barbara Walker said that during her 1973 discussion, Whitworth said he hesitated to become a spy “because John bragged too much and he didn’t trust him. I said something to the effect that he couldn’t be trusted.”

A Matter of Trust

When Whitworth visited her at her home in Norfolk in 1976, Walker said, “Jerry said he didn’t trust John, and I said I didn’t blame him.” She said she related “some very negative things” that her husband had told her about the man he described in testimony as his “best friend”--that Whitworth was bisexual, used drugs and was “involved with a very young teen-ager.”

Walker also said she “suggested” to her husband that she accompany him on a drop in 1968, several weeks after she discovered he was a spy, because “I wanted him to know how much I cared.”

She told of flying to the East Coast from California for another drop in 1974, when her husband was serving on the supply ship Niagara Falls.

When Walker was transferred back to Norfolk and was driving across the country with his family, he made another drop, his ex-wife testified. “I was very angry,” she said. “My children were there and I couldn’t believe he was doing it.” Walker, she said, made the drop anyway.